Friday August 20th

Yesterday was a rough day.  The doctor visited and told me I would be here through the weekend, and we would re-evaluate on Monday.  In the back of my head I know that this is the best place for me, it is just taxing on the emotions.  Slayton started school without me.  He did awesome (as if we are surprised by this!)  He came up to see me twice yesterday.  My mom brought him to eat lunch with me, and he gave typical boy answers about school.  I had to drag stuff out of him!  At first he said that it was fun, expect when they talked about 'all of the rules'.  Later he told me all the fun things that they did.  In the evening Meghan and Tyler brought him up to have some family time with DJ and I.  It was the most perfect part of the last few days.  Slayton curled up in my little hospital bed with me and we watched some TV.  Four year olds don't know how to express their emotions very clearly, but it is extremely clear that he misses his mommy, and his routine.  I keep telling myself that this is just a bump in the road, and that in a few months he won't be bothered by this anymore.  Even though everybody is trying their hardest to make this normal for him, and they are trying to keep him entertained he wants the boring life we had two weeks ago back.  Tonight we are going to have a party here at the hospital.  Friday nights at the Bruner household usually involve a movie and popcorn on the living room floor.  Tonight we will adapt the location and have pizza, movie and popcorn here at the hospital.

This is the first time in my 7 years teaching that my class started without me.  It is funny how much I put into my work, and I haven't even been thinking of it too much.  I think that God knows that I would stress out about school, so he placed the right people in my life to help with it so I would not even have to worry about it!  Thanks to Julie Perdue, Teresa McCormick and Debbie Boswell, and Carla Smith. I know that lots of others are helping so much and in ways that I don't see.  Jina Tolle and Melanie Forth have also been very helpful getting my room put together. 

Today I am going to meditate on Phillipians 4 (The Message)
6-7Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

10-14I'm glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you're again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don't mean that your help didn't mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles.